Vultee A-35 Vengeance

Vultee A-35 Revenge Story

The A-35 Vengeance is a dive bomber built by the Vultee Aircraft Company, with over a thousand examples used by foreign militaries under Lend-Lease. Originally ordered for the French V-72, about 300 prototypes arrived before the fall of France. Subsequent examples were sent to the UK, where they were used in some limited operational roles (in Burma), but were mostly relegated to target tugs for the Royal European Air Force. This light combat use mainly came from the aircraft's underperforming specifications after it was an outlier compared to its contemporaries.

Other users include the Free French Forces operating in North Africa, the Indian Air Force and the Royal Australian Air Force.

The A-35 appears to be a very basic aircraft, with a low-set monoplane and a single vertical tail. The fuselage was long enough to accommodate a Wright-powered R-2600 1,700 hp 14-cylinder radial engine (A-35B).

A 6 x 12.7mm (0.50 caliber) machine gun battery is mounted on the leading edge of the wings, three per wing, and a 12.7mm machine gun is mounted in a flexible mounted rear cockpit location. The pilot sits side by side with the tail gunner in the glass-covered canopy area.

With dive bombs, the system can hold about 2,000 pounds of bombs.

At the heart of the A-35 is an evolution of the previous generation A-31 platform, when the German Ju 87 Stuka (detailed elsewhere on this page) showed the world just how destructive a dive bomber could be. Vultee produced about 99 A-35A models for the U.S.

Army, followed by the improved A-35B model line with 100 or more. The A-35B came about as the Army asked Vultee to address several combat deficiencies in its original production model. Changes and fixes include expansion of the 4 x 12.7mm machine gun layout in the wings to 6 x 12.7mm machine guns, redesigned tail surfaces and modifications to the fuel system.

For added safety, self-sealing fuel tanks were also implemented, a practice that was now the norm at the height of World War II.

Although the A-35 was evaluated and accepted by U.S. military planners, it was never actually used in combat with the U.S. military, as the military placed more emphasis on the light twin-engine already in the game than this particular dive bomber bomber. As a result, the A-35 was relegated to a more minor role in U.S.

Army service, primarily as a target tug and trainer.

Vultee A-35 Vengeance Spec

Basic

Production

Roles

Dimensions

Weight

Performance

Performance

Armor

Changes